About Lost Egypt

Lost Egypt: Ancient Secrets, Modern Science is a traveling exhibition developed by COSI, Columbus, Ohio's dynamc hands-on science center. The exhibition connects visitors with real archaeologists working on projects in Egypt throgh a combination of hands-on activities and ancient artifacts (including a real human mummy).

Lost Egypt premieres at COSI from May 30 through September 7, 2009. For more information, visit LostEgypt.org.

It’s been an amazing summer with “Lost Egypt” at COSI. There were several particularly memorable experiences for me.

After years of looking at a small table-top paper scale model of the exhibit, it was incredible to walk into the gallery for the first time and see the real exhibits and murals and walls. Seeing the large scale murals of Egypt, as well as Brad Feinknopf’s photos in the hallway, reminded me of our trip to Egypt.

Watching visitors at our member event with archaeologists Dr. Mark Lehner and Ana Tavares from Ancient Egypt Research Associates, and Dr. Jonathan Elias from the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, was so great. I got to introduce two girls who want to become archaeologists to Ana as they walked through the exhibit!

I saw hundreds of people climb on the camel, build a pyramid, search out the archaeological clues from the Lost City site, move a pyramid block, discover artifacts, watch a show about the afterlife, come face to face with a mummy, explore tomb art, and study the forensic science behind mummies. I really hope we managed to capture some of the excitement and sense of wonder that is the science of archaeology, and share it with our visitors.

We performed formal evaluations, received written comments, and overheard lots of conversations about “Lost Egypt”. We really value all the comments from visitors and colleagues – everything that was said about what you liked and didn’t like, what you found compelling, beautiful, or boring, is so useful in planning our future exhibits. Thank you to everyone who participated.

Now we’re preparing to close “Lost Egypt”. I feel a bit like I’m sending my kid off on her first day of school. “Lost Egypt”is heading out into the world to tour the U.S. for the next several years. It was the most wonderful, exhausting, amazing and challenging work project I’ve ever had. I’m so grateful for the help of Josh, Carli, Jenn and all the others at COSI who helped turn the idea into reality. And the Science Museum of Minnesota team who brought it to life was incredible – I miss working with all of you, and hope we can head off to Jordan or Greece or Mexico for the next adventure some day soon! It’s been a privilege to work on Lost Egypt, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

This is the final week of the Lost Egypt exhibit. It’s hard to believe that after a 5-year development process, our 3 months of hosting the exhibit is already coming to an end. What a journey it’s been. The Cincinnati Museum Center has just announced that they will host the exhibit this fall, so our team of experts will be packing up the exhibit after Labor Day, and shipping her down to Cincinnati. At least those of us close to the project can drive south 90 minutes to visit! If you haven’t been yet, I would definitely recommend you take advantage of this last week that the exhibit is open, and come down to COSI – the Labor Day deadline is looming…

COSI makes history – Newly developed model of mummy “Annie” just installed in COSI’s Lost Egypt exhibit – they are the first full-torso, life-size renderings of an Egyptian mummy to be made using the rapid prototype process. Dr. Jonathan Elias, Director of the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, produced the 3D models from CT scans taken showing the various layers of the mummy’s wrappings, exclusively for COSI’s Lost Egypt exhibition.

Dr. Mark Lehner, who was at the Lost Egypt exhibit opening, is featured in COSI’s weekly podcast segment called “Stump the Scientist.” This week’s question comes from a young girl who attended the Member Preview on the exhibit opening day. She wanted to know how old the pyramids were, and how anyone could tell their age. There may not be anyone on the planet better equipped to answer that question than Dr. Mark Lehner, Director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates and foremost expert on the Sphinx.

Dr. Lehner recently paired up with Dr. Zahi Hawass, of the Supreme Council of Antiquities to film a documentary about the Sphinx, the Lost City, and the AERA Field School. The filming was a chance for the two archaeologists to take a walk down memory lane together. According to Hawass:

“On the third day of filming, Mark Lehner and I talked about how we met over thirty years ago, and how our friendship grew as we worked together, starting our first excavation to the northeast of the Sphinx. We found evidence from the different ages that the Sphinx has witnessed, including the Old Kingdom, the New Kingdom, and the Roman Period. We have been working together for decades to understand this amazing monument, and I am so happy that the two of us could tell our story together – as two boys who met in front of the Sphinx, became friends, and grew up to reveal its secrets.”

Dr. Lehner talks more about the project in the AERA newsletter. For more of Dr. Zahi Hawass on the Sphinx film, visit his blog.

COSI has held an unprecedented number of opening events to kick off the Lost Egypt exhibit. We started with a Columbus Metropolitan Club luncheon last Wednesday featuring COSI President and CEO David Chesebrough, Executive Director of The Columbus Museum of Art Nannette Maciejunes, and Archaeologist at the Ohio Historical Society and advisor on COSI’s Lost Egypt project Dr. Brad Lepper. We followed that up with a huge Press Preview on Thursday morning with media, sponsors, dignitaries, and community leaders, with opportunities for media to interview Dr. Mark Lehner and Ana Tavares of the Ancient Egypt Research Associates.

Friday evening was our VIP Dinner event, To Egypt & Back: an Evening with Dr. Mark Lehner, with nearly 150 people enjoying a Mediterranean-style dinner and lecture on the “Lost City” of the pyramid builders by Dr. Lehner. Saturday morning was our Member Preview where members got a sneak peak of the exhibit and saw the film Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs on the Extreme Screen. And finally, we opened to the public on Saturday at Noon. It was a marathon of events, but we had a ton of great feedback from guests that we wanted to share.